Shipwreck Point

We cut a wide circle around Shipwreck Point, which is surrounded by No Trespassing signs and watched over by its owners, who are probably tired of the curious tramping across their little piece of paradise.

I first saw this place from the train many years ago, and have been fascinated by it ever since. The shipwrecks are actually the remains of a salvage operation reportedly begun in the 1920s. I would like to know how much their skeletons have influenced the morphology of this small point of land. The largest hulk acts as a groin to northward transport, stabilizing the beach on the south and creating a small marshy cove on the north.

If ships being dismantled on beaches catches your fancy, visit Alang Beach, north of Mumbai on the western coast of India. Search the web or locate the article in the Atlantic Monthly (Langewiesche, The Shipbreakers, August, 2000). You might also visit it with Google Earth: (search 21°24'9.02"N, 72°11'17.67"E).